TRINITY – Aug. 17 was established as the target date to hire a new superintendent when the Trinity School Board approved a “time line” for the search during their meeting Monday night. Selection consultant Bob Smith of the Texas Association of School Boards met with the board to set up a schedule of board meetings and interview sessions as part of effort to replace former Superintendent Dr. Bobby Rice, who resigned effective April 30. Rice left to accept the post of director of ancillary services with the Gilmer Independent School District. The hunt for the new chief school administrator will officially kick off on Thursday, June 3 with a series of meetings designed to help determine what qualifications the next superintendent should have. Smith said meetings would be held with five groups in order to obtain input on what qualities and skills they feel the new superintendent should possess. While meetings planned with administrators, support staff and high school students will be held during the school day, a session open to all teachers will be held at 3:30 p.m. A meeting open to the community as a whole is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. in the Trinity Intermediate School auditorium. The school board will then have a session with selection consultants at 5: 30 p.m. In addition, Smith said a link would be placed on the school district’s website allowing those who cannot attend one of the meetings to fill out a short survey regarding superintendent qualifications. The school district’s web address is www.trinityisd.net. Smith told the board all of these sessions are designed to receive input from a broad spectrum of people. Based on the comments made at the meetings, Smith said he would put together a profile that would be provided to potential applicants . The draft profile document will then be presented to the board for final approval at a special meeting on Monday, June 7. “This is your document. You can add things that you feel are important or you can delete items that you don’t think are important,” Smith said. He explained that items that will be included would be things that come up repeatedly during the June 3 meetings. “You may have a item that you mention at your meeting, but unless it has also come up at one or more of the other meetings, it probably won’t be included in the document we will present to you. If you feel strongly about it, you can put it in,” he said. While the TASB consultants have already begun advertising the position across the state, the final profile will be added to the listing. Smith said the deadline for applications has been set for June 22 and the consultants will review them to verify to make sure the applicants are all properly certified by the state. On June 29, the board will again meet with the consultants to go over the applications and select six for personal interviews. At that meeting, the consultants will conduct an interview training session for the board members. Smith noted that under the law, there are things that the board cannot ask and he wants to make sure they are all aware of the rules. The initial interviews for the job will be held July 7, 8 and 9 with two applicants meeting with the board each night. From those interviews, the board will narrow the field down to three and follow-up interviews will be held on July 12, 13 and 14. On Friday, July 23, the board has tentatively set to visit the leading contender’s current school district. A committee of up to three members of the board can make the trip to visit with officials and the public where the candidate is now working. The “finalist” will then be publicly named for the first time on July 26. By law, there has to be a 21-day waiting period for public comment before the school board can vote to formally hire the new superintendent on Aug. 17.